Into the infinite abyss of the startup adventure

With a lifetime of knowing that entrepreneurship is at my core and now 4 years of studying the web startup world, I’ve finally made the jump from ‘Office Space’ corporate America into the infinite abyss of the startup adventure.

I’ve had a great taste of the startup world, but this is something entirely different. In 2008, I attempted the nights & weekends project; with SocialDreamium we were creating a community analytics product focused towards startup community mgrs. I did all product design and customer development while my co-founder did all development. When Tweetdeck & Seesmic launched their FB & Twitter clients in April 2009, it took the wind from our sales and we closed shop in June 09. Many lessons learned.

More recently, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work with Foursquare. Tristan Walker & Dennis Crowley are awesome, and in a short 3 months I learned a ton, and was continually inspired by the product they were building and the (what will be) powerful business around it. If I learned one thing from that experience it is that you absolutely must be excited about what you’re working on. If you’re at all bored with your work, you have no chance of success. The excitement that the Foursquare team brings to the office everyday is truly inspiring. Thanks fellas.

I had an incredible experience over the last 2 years with GE Healthcare. I was exposed to so much through the management training program I was apart of and was able to work for some of the best managers in that business. I worked on everything from major ERP deployments to enterprise e-commerce, and was able to refine my project management skills in possibly the best environment in the world to do so. But recently a co-worker asked why I’m leaving GE and my answer was this…

My priorities with a job are two fold, first, I want to learn as much as possible, and second, I want to be excited about what I’m working on. I found an opportunity that will allow both of those priorities to be filled in a greater way that I believe GE could. When it came down to it, it was a pretty easy decision…

So, what’s next. It’s a combination of everything I was looking for. I’ll be working with some of the most bad ass entrepreneurs & investors in the industry, and I’ll have an opportunity to learn more in shorter periods of time than I believe I could in any corporate program. I’ll be at the ground floor of a startup that has the opportunity to change the world. I found the opportunity with a little bit of luck, a little bit of right time & right place, and a lot of hard work and preparing for an unidentified opportunity.

So, what is it?

Unfortunately, we’re not quite ready to bare it all. While I generally like to avoid the term “stealth mode”, we’re early and we’re running as fast as we can. I can tell you that I’ll be working between New York & San Francisco and I really look forward to making all the relationships I’ve created in those startup hubs over the last 3 years real life friendships. The world of no health insurance, jamming late nights, endless responsibility, and some of the most fun I’ve ever had are ahead of me and I’m so stoked.